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Nice review, considering resubbing now. I especially agree that the quality of the quests are a major draw. They tend to read like a book as opposed to a series of directions with a plot carrot diced and tossed in. This quality pulls me into the storytelling element in such a way that I unconsciously paint my character onto the pages by my own volition.

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Thanks, I find the questing system in this game to be its biggest draw, you actually feel like you are part of the game rather than just following a series of goals for no real reason. Its almost like a quality single player expierence in a multiplayer game.

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Thats a pretty great review. I think you hit the nail(s) on the head.

To me, LOTRO puts the RPG back into MMORPG. Great quests and excellent story telling gives LOTRO a different feel from the standard MMORPG. I also agree that there is an EQ1 feeling about it which has made me decide not to play this game, but except for that, LOTRO is polished very well put together.

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The only thing I think you could have expanded on in the graphic's section would be while the scenery is very appealing and lush, the character models are a shade on the cartoony side.

The two people that I've tried to get interested in the game have pretty much acknowledged all your high points and think that it's a very nice game, but have had major problems with how their avatar would look. While I just gloss over that point personally, some really identify with their in game self.

As this seems to be a common comment on the O-boards, it is an item that would be nice for Turbine to overhaul. My guess is that this is just how Turbine does avatars as the models in DDO looked pretty much the same. How were the one's in AC? Anyone?

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One of the guys I talked to even said they look WoWish and he doesn't even play WoW.

From O-board comments it seems most give LotRO pluses for not having stuff 'growing out of their shoulders or huge shoulder pads that could double as airplane wings', in effect cartoony but not so over the top.

I think Turbine tried to hit a middle ground, but with avatars you almost need to go over the top cartoon or push towards the realistic (SWG ..., well kind of in a 48DDD world :) ). Middle ground never satisfy's either side.

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I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta. They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.

In other words: grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.

The gear sets in all the 6 mans made all the crafted armor obsolete (unless you need them for an alt), and the legendary item system has made weapon crafting obsolete. So crafting is horribly broken at the moment. I often check my server's AH for high level crafted items, and most of the time there is NOTHING listed at all for level 48+. Not a single crafted item.

IMO the game is taking a turn for the worse for veteran players who started playing this early at the expense of attracting new players. That's fine...that's Turbine's call. I'm just not happy with where the game is going right now.

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I give this entry two thumbs up for two reasons:

1) Bill Hicks icon. Yes, that warrants a thumb-up in my book.

2) Content. Although I will nit-pick, being the grammar you-know-what I can be, and say commas are not your friend. Run on sentences kinda break the flow of the words in odd ways, but that's a small concern. Excellent choice of images, and overall, it was a good overview.

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Not bad, I actually liked your review. Especially the stuff you told about classes was really interesting.

Ive played the game for about a year now, and in my opinion, the two (2) new classes (Warden and Runekeeper) were a good add. Especially for me, because I was missing a hybrid (Warden = DPS / Tank hybrid)... Still, Runekeeper's were a bad choice in my opinion, I really dont like that there is the superior magic users in the world of LotR...

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I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta. They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.

In other words: grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.

No, they are not. they are simply adding a handful of things that players wanted. But in comparison, its about 2% of the entire game, and still more assessable to casuals then any other game on the market.

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The avatars look great. Just look at my photo album for examples!

Seriously, though, I was a former player and I recently resubbed. LOTRO has very cool instances (the game is not all instanced for those who never played). I like how you go into Books or epic instances and follow a story. Some are mediocre, some are great. The lowbie stuff can be very burnt with the typical kill 10 boars, kill 10 spiders, etc, but there is a strong RPG element that helps to sustain it throw the more familiar moments.

If you're on the fence, check it out. I played through the betas and for a year. I left pre-Moria and just came back. I'm having a good time with it. It has shortcomings but what game doesn't? The conjunctions and small fellowship quests are a blast, too. I'm not saying that it is all original but there are plenty of things that are.

I'm on Meneldor. Look me up: Levathar.

My friends and I get together and we have always run stupid events like chicken races (where you spawn as a chicken and then run across Bree). We've had drunken swim meets where you pound ale and your screen goes crazy and you have to swim with your knee caps broken. Right now we do a "nightgown fellowship" where we put our male avatars in dresses and run around looking like imbeciles. I know this makes some people mad but we play games to have laughs and fun, not to be serious and feel powerful through pixels.

Have a winner and don't go on a game over! Does your avatar make you powerful in real life? Check out the Mystical Enders gaming community. www.mysticalenders.com

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Two comments:

I have well over 250 hours invested into my highest level character, and he's only 44. Maybe if you have someone power leveling you, you could reach it in 5 to 10 days. But even with the new xp curve (which does help) I doubt it. Then again, I apparently don't have the tolerance for grinding that some do (hard to believe, since I've played Korean games). But I have almost none of my grinding deeds done (except the return to bree one)

The quests stop being interesting (and numerous) around level 20. (I discovered this after buying my lifetime sub, sadly). This also (at least for me) was when I was basically playing the game alone, since the numbers of other players dropped off after the trial area.

I would suggest subbing, but don't buy a lifetime sub unless you have a lot of money, or you've played from 20-30 without disliking the game (since the rest of the way to 50 is a slog like 20-30)

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I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta. They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.

In other words: grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.

No, they are not. they are simply adding a handful of things that players wanted. But in comparison, its about 2% of the entire game, and still more assessable to casuals then any other game on the market.

Actually Mrbloodworth, Thradar is correct. Lotro has become a grind for gear, reputation and dailies. The general motivation/drive to do quests in lotro has gone from <having fun> to <greed>.

Those 2% of the entire game, is sadly, the entire endgame alternative at the moment. So telling us that its only 2% of the entire game is alittle missleading.

What players wanted was more group content, and we got it, but I most certainly did not ask for quest clusters, gated content and for the community to plummet to the ground like 500 pound gorilla just because Turbine changed the motivation/drive to do quests to greed.

Lotro is a great game from level 1-50! Actually, its fucking great! But, its obvious that the developers who designed SoA have moved over to Turbine's new prosject a long time ago. The proof is in the pudding; Volume 1 is astronomically better that Volume 2, in both story and quest design.

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Originally posted by BesCirga

Lotro is a great game from level 1-50! Actually, its fucking great! But, its obvious that the developers who designed SoA have moved over to Turbine's new prosject a long time ago. The proof is in the pudding; Volume 1 is astronomically better that Volume 2, in both story and quest design.

You may have a point there. Take a look at this blog from a former Turbine dev who worked on AC2.

http://www.eldergame.com/2009/07/08/the-warcraft-live-teams-b-squad/

Some of the bugs and longer waits for the post-Moria Books may be due to this. However, I still see devs posting that have been around LOTRO since before launch, like Floon, Scenario and Orion. Others have left Turbine entirely, like Mithril Miser.

For the record, I actually like Moria itself. Some areas are better than others from a quest perspective, but visually it is stunning.

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I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta. They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.

In other words: grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.

The gear sets in all the 6 mans made all the crafted armor obsolete (unless you need them for an alt), and the legendary item system has made weapon crafting obsolete. So crafting is horribly broken at the moment. I often check my server's AH for high level crafted items, and most of the time there is NOTHING listed at all for level 48+. Not a single crafted item.

IMO the game is taking a turn for the worse for veteran players who started playing this early at the expense of attracting new players. That's fine...that's Turbine's call. I'm just not happy with where the game is going right now.

I couldnt agree more. You basically wrote exactly what I planning to post...LOL. I played for almost 2 years (a great Kinship kept me coming back) but since Moria's release, LOTRO headed in the wrong direction IMO. I'm sure not all agree but LOTRO to me is a huge dissapointment. Turbine did exactly what I was hoping they wouldnt do to LOTRO. The games always had potential but unfortionately its an average MMO at best, if your able to look past the bland character graphics and combat. I had always hoped LOTRO would turn out to be a great "RPG focused" MMO but its far from it unfortionately.

I'm sorry but the quests in LOTRO are no better then most MMOs out. Abd the epic books are kindof cheesy no? LOL They simply seem great because most of you are Tolkien fans...Turbine truely has you all hooked and their making plenty of money in mean time. Why LOTRO is rated so high on this site beats me because I've been there, played it, lived it, and was truely dissapointed in the end. I've no doubt that someone working for mmorpg.com is a tolkien fan because most other MMOs I've played make LOTROs gameplay look horrible.

I wish LOTRO the best but a part of me hopes for an compeny to give Middle Earth another shot to show Turbine how it should have been done, but it'll never happen. LOTRO for me was a huge let down, I now read the books if I want a Tolkien fix. :-)

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Maybe I'll resub, maybe.

In all fairness, I didn't give it that much of a go, but I found the side-quest plots to be paper thin. Go to suchandsuch and kill X amount of whatevers, says the NPC who doesn't so much as move from a fixed spot all day and night. Yiggity yawn. The main "chapter" quests, or whatever they called them, were kind of neat though. I also really enjoyed PvMP, it really gave you a sense of being the bad guy.